Project+Rationale


 * __5th Grade Graduation Project Rationale__**

In fifth grade students have a graduation or "moving up" ceremony on the last day of school. In this composition project all fifth grade students will collaborate to compose a song to sing at their graduation/moving up ceremony that expresses their feelings and thoughts about graduating and leaving elementary school. This project will take 20 classes, or the entire second marking period of the school year, and will involve 3 classes of 25 students each. The classes will collaborate with the other 2 fifth grade classes, their classroom teachers, a professional composer, and a fifth grade class from another district to create the composition. The final song will be in Verse/Chorus form with 2 verses and students will write the accompaniment. As students are working through the process of composition they will do a monthly blog, tweet, or journal to reflect on their feelings towards graduation and their thoughts on the composition process.

At the end of the process students will be evaluated on a portfolio that includes their journal entries, a summary journal entry on how their feelings changed from January to June, their investigation information, and a copy of the finalized composition lyrics and accompaniment notation sheet. I hope that students will develop the dispositions of taking responsible risks, and listening to others with empathy in this project. The end product of this project is that students will discover that music, and the others arts are a medium to express their thoughts and feelings and share those with others.